Are you the hunter, or the prey?
by salty marco
Summary: The strawhat crew always celebrated Halloween and this was no different this year, so for the occasion, why not play a slightly different version of hide and seek. (Zoro x Usopp)
1. Chapter 1

_**I guess Halloween has passed already unfortunately, but since it's my absolute favourite celebration I couldn't miss out on writing at least one or two fanfics/drabbles with a festive ambience. If you hadn't guessed it yet, this is yet another Zoro x Usopp fanfic. SHOCKER! **_

_**As always enjoy, pls leave a review and I wish you all an awesome day! 3**_

Even if the Straw hat pirates were usually pretty damn busy, there were some things they'd never forget or even consider leaving out, certain traditions like celebrating Christmas together, bombarding someone with presents when their birthday arrived and of course, raising the scare factor within everyone with a good game of hide and seek, but in much more creepy.

The rules were fairly simple, there were 8 people trapped on the haunted ship, trying to survive the night while chased by one of their nakama, or at least what used to be one.

Insanity seems to have taken control over them and now they seem to wander over the creaking wood of the thousand Sunny, looking for fresh blood to try and appease their hunger. In order to decide who would be the hiders and who'd be the killer each one of them would have to enter a room that only appeared on Halloween (in other words, the bathroom without the furniture inside). As soon as they were inside it, there was a box with a hole, they could put their hand threw to pick one of the nine balls inside, this would settle if they'd be the hunter or the prey.

In other words, none of them knew if they could trust the other and the fearsome individual among them was smart, they'd keep their identity hidden, playing with the mind of those they were controlling like puppets to walk right into their demise.

This game created a lot of tension and was very nerve wrecking, the only way to win it?

Stay alive till the break of dawn. If you were to get caught by the killer, you'd have to fulfil one of his desires, one wish only and you'd have to leave the competition immediately, however still forced to observe the rest of the game. So, choose wisely who you are going to side with, for everyone is wearing a mask with a grin hidden beneath in this game.

_**However, the most important part was yet to come…**_

If the murderer should not be able to catch everyone till the break of dawn, the individual/s can express one wish themselves that must be granted of course, so with all of this information given, we shall start.

(this is written from Usopps POV from now on).

We'd all be standing in the centre of the Sunny, on the grass, awaiting the strike of midnight.

10 minutes before that would occur, we would always gather and look each other right in the eye as we were forced to wait in the complete silence, with only the clocks ticking to be heard and the breathing of the coldblooded.

A few more seconds to go, I thought to myself, then I'd run away as soon as I could. We had 30 minutes before the hunting could begin, we'd all be hiding or making up plans until then. The entire ship was at our disposal. Last year Sanji was the culprit and it seemed to be going rather well, if it weren't for the fact that he couldn't force himself to get Nami and Robin.

Everyone seem to be wearing some sort of costume as it was every year, Chopper decided to die his fur of a greenish shade and imitate wounds, which wasn't very hard for him since he knew quite a lot about human anatomy, probably trying to resemble one of Dr. Hogwarts creations.

Nami was going for a witch look, choosing to wear black clothing that perfectly captured her curves, yet didn't seem to be uncomfortable to wear, her skin of a paler shade of white and to top everything off she even bought white contact lenses and wore a black and purple witch hat, she seemed to have put some real effort into the look.

Luffy was wearing a pumpkin costume, he had found it on an island once and decided that he absolutely needed it, now all knew why he did need it.

Sanji was wearing a very fancy costume and seemed to come from a royal family, like a Count, his hair pulled back with some gelatinous substance, proving to everyone that he did in fact have two eyes and he also decided to make his skin look more pale and have some fake blood dripping down his face, the sharp Vampire teeth only revealed when he'd open his fangs to drill deep into his nakama's neck, the thought honestly sent a chill down Usopps spine.

Next to him was Franky, who changed his physical appearance just for this occasion and decided to deform his limbs, much like the limbs of canines. He was indeed resembling a werewolf and it was really hard to recognize him at first, simply because it looked so realistic, he looked incredible, but also incredibly frightening, luckily Usopp had some silverware with him.

Brook was…well…it wasn't really his fault, at least he didn't try to wear a dress again this year, last year Sanji nearly got a heartache when he thought he'd seen the skeleton try and wink at home jokingly, even if Brook didn't have eyes. The thought of a skeleton In a dress with lipstick was quite terrifying.

Robin had really outdone herself this year, she was resembling medusa, wearing a skin tight dress that touched the floor, her hair wild and messy, with a couple of hands sticking out of it, but these hands all looked like snakes, she drew over all of them herself and made them move like living creatures. Her eyes like those of snakes thanks to contact lenses, her nails had olive green extensions and she even managed to create the illusion of scales all over her exposed body parts, this was impressive.

Now it was Zoros turn and Usopp honestly didn't think the swordsman would try to disguise himself in any way, but he was fooled. He represented death itself, putting his swords aside for what Usopp thought was the first time, to replace them with a huge scythe. He was mostly covered by a black veil, holding the scythe in one hand and the other holding a lantern. It weak light barely making his facial features visible, his predator grin, this was truly horrifying.

Now to finish everything off, of course I had to describe my own costume, I made use of my great crafting skills and some of my plants for this, to make it as realistic as possible. I ripped some of the shirts that I didn't wear to begin with and created wounds all over my body with fake blood dripping down, my clothes already covered in the scarlet fluid. Of course I had to make it look more realistic as well so I had to make the wounds look really nasty, some of them exposing stuff like organs as well, all fake but it looked quite real I'm pretty sure by the looks I got from everyone.

I was wearing white contact lenses myself and made my mouth look like it was torn wide open, as to expose all my teeth, I even made fake maggots that looked like they were all over my body. Had to admit it, was really proud of what monstrosity I had created, but…I wasn't the murderer.

I had ye to figure out who could be it and I was really excited as always, that didn't mean I wasn't scared-

"**RING; RING; RING!"**

My thought train was interrupted by the sudden ringing of the clock, it had begun, the trial to see if you'd survive the night with a killer possibly creeping up to you any second.

I looked around, just to realize that everyone else had disappeared, knowing Luffy he'd probably follow someone, not really understanding the game.

The silence here was unbearable, I looked across the railing and found myself staring at a thick wall of fog, making it impossible to see further than a couple of feet ahead.

This was the perfect atmosphere for this evening, it was also rather cold, to the point where I could see my breaths, I felt chills go down my spine. However, this certainly wasn't the right time to just stand out here in plain sight, I had to try and find a good spot to think somewhere, luckily the ship was rather big so this couldn't be that hard.

There were plenty of places I could go to, all decorated for the occasion with all sorts of things, from cobwebs covering the hallways to rooms lit by one singular candle that would emit a green phosphorescent light.

I decided to simply go somewhere, anywhere would probably be better than out here, so I walked towards the kitchen door, not lifting my feet as I was crossing the grass to get there.

I reached for the door handle and slowly pulled the door open, the sound of the door opening so loud anyone would probably know by now where he'd be, the sound echoing threw the dark room only lit by the moonlight shining through the window.

I made a careful step inside the kitchen and felt the wood creaking beneath my feet, I was cringing in terror, but soon realized that would be the last of my worries as I heard a scream of pure terror coming from the direction I was facing.

The game had officially begun.

_**Well this was mostly a descriptive chapter, but I still hope you liked it and if you did please leave a review and I hope you'll have an awesome day! 3**_

_**Also pls tell me if you want me to continue this, am not really sure if I should, but let's seewhat fate the future holds for us!**_


	2. Chapter 2

**SOOO! After I noticed how much feedback I got on this fanfiction I had to at least try my best to fulfil your wish and have the game of "Hunter or Prey" continue! So, without further ado let's get into the game of hide and seek shall we! Also! If you have any wishes for fanfictions (mainly regarding One piece or Steven Universe) don't hesitate to dm me or even leave a comment on any fanfiction! But now let's get started for real!**

He was paralyzed, it was just a scream of pure terror. He'd heard his nakama scream before whenever they played this game, yet every time, he'd find himself remaining frozen in place for a short amount of time, incapable of moving. He was pretty sure this was Namis scream he'd just heard, and he considered three possibilities.

Possibility number one, running away as far as possible to try and not get caught by the killer too.

Possibility number two, running towards the scream as fast as possible to try and see if she was ok and then run away with her, which would also mean he'd risk getting fooled by her, because she was actually just trying to lure people to her for some easy prey or attracting the killers attention.

Possibility number three was, well just kinda trying to look for a hiding spot to endure in, until the situation calmed down to try and observe precisely what was going on in there.

He settled for the third option, thinking it would probably be the smartest choice in a situation like this, everyone had to look out for themselves and he couldn't allow himself to make any mistakes. This was not just a game, Nami once was the killer and asked everyone for unreasonable amounts of money, which is why the rules were changed the next time as for her to not be able to ask for huge amounts of money. However, there were still lots of things other than money that some could ask of others and he really feared certain thoughts and people.

There was a big bush in the hallway with thick foliage a drawer right next to it, most people wouldn't even be able to squeeze through there except for the skinny legends among the group and he didn't think any of them would actually destroy furniture or ruin stuff just to get to people. He felt perfectly hidden for now and decided to just wait and observe. He bent down so that he would nearly be entirely covered by the vase but then he thought someone might see him because of his costume. There were some who could easily hide, like Zoro with his completely black costume.

Oh well, there was no time to make these kinds of thoughts, he needed to focus on what was going on! He thought to himself, but then when he was trying to listen more carefully, he realized that everything had turned quiet... his heart started beating quicker and louder again, he felt his back forcing itself onto the wooden wall behind him.

Barely a couple of seconds went by, but these felt like minutes. He had a strange relationship with stuff like fear, because he was obviously really scared when he experienced it, yet he enjoyed being scared in some way because it filled him with excitement and the fear of dying often awoke a side he didn't want to really show the others a lot, a bloodthirsty side.

Kinda like how Zoro whenever he smiled at anyone, but not nearly as scary obviously. How shook his head, getting out of his daydream and coming back to reality. Quite some time had gone by and nothing really happened so he thought it could be a good time quietly get out. He could very well just stay there probably but where'd excitement of it all be if he were to do that.

So, he slowly crawled out of his hiding spot, trying to make as little noise as possible, but that turned out to be a lot harder than he anticipated, when the floor boards kept on creaking beneath his feet even if the ship was rather new.

He wanted to get further into the hallway, keeping an eye on anything that seemed like it could move. There were in fact many decorations that seemed to be charged with electricity and went off at the most random times. They made him jump just the slightest bit and even yelp a couple of times, but he had to go on and looking behind him to the front and the sides, while getting jump scared and trying to actually move on was not really a fast process.

So, he did progress rather slowly but at least he felt safer like this. Eventually he arrived at a half open door, sneaking inside to see if anyone was in there, the problem was that his nose wasn't really helping him at being sneaky.

He tried not to cause any commotion and just quickly glanced in to see if anyone was there, but nope there was no one to be seen, it was just the usual fish tank with a lot and I mean A LOT of decorations of all sorts. Yet somehow it didn't seem to be too overwhelming, it created an atmosphere and a lot of possible hiding spots.

The fish and sea creatures in the tank were also different from the ones they usually had, there were mostly jellyfish in there with a somewhat phosphorescent glow to them, they were giving off greenish or blueish light and served as the only light source inside the room which was both good and bad at the same time he thought to himself as he slowly entered. Not opening the door any wider however, he didn't want to risk making everyone know where he was right now.

There was a thing he noticed however as he made his way in there. In the hallway and in here there were tone dials and he expected it to be the case on the entire ship, they were probably there to create pre-registered sounds to startle and confuse them. Pretty clever he had to admit. They really put a lot of effort into all of this, this year. He was excited to see how all of this would turn out.

However he didn't want to just stand here watching the jellyfish until the killer would arrive and get him, so instead he looked around to see if he could create a little hiding spot for a bit to see if anyone would go through here, which would certainly happen. It was just a matter of time.

But what he didn't expect was to get pulled in by a big hand that was covering his entire face. He wanted to scream right away and nearly fainted from the shook, well that was until he heard a familiar pretty scared sounding voice.

Chopper was telling him how scared he was while also trying to keep Usopp from fainting by shaking him under the black cloth he pulled him under. So, when Usopp finally recovered from the shock and slapped Chopper for nearly giving him a heart attack, they started discussing what they had found out so far.

Usopp found out that Chopper had kinda been hiding in this room, under this cloth since the beginning of the game and could assure Usopp that no one had been here. Chopper had wanted to get out before, but he heard a scream very close by, so he got frightened and decided to just stay under here.

"Look Chopper I kinda get why you'd stay down here, but if you're scared that the murderer could find you, why pull someone down here with you...?"

"What do you mean, you're not the murderer!"

"I mean...how would you know?"

"Ehm…I guess that's kinda how Nami eliminated me las time...you're right sorry Usopp."

Usopp knew he could stay with Chopper all game, there was no way Chopper was the killer. He was one year but he was so excited that everyone got it, even without him telling everyone, which he did.

He was smart, but not witty in short. So Usopp explained to Chopper how the scream they might have heard earlier could very well have been one of the recordings from the tone dial and even if he was a little hesitant at first he started believing it after having heard it a couple of times while they were down there whispering.

They were feeling rather calm until Usopp thought about something that had kinda been bothering him. The tone dial seemed to play at irregular rates, which didn't make sense to him until he considered something. What if it only played when someone was near it..and if that were to be the case, did that mean someone could have been stalking them until now, planning on getting rid of them..?

**Hmm not a lot happened in the chapter, but I feel like it could kinda build up more tension like this soo I hope you enjoyed it! Wish you a great day and as always suggestions and reviews are always greatly appreciated!**


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